Despite a new sales office in Hong Kong, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to China and a robust growth in Chinese national users, Facebook says it currently has no plans for China.
Blake Chandlee, Facebook’s vice-president and commercial director for emerging markets said, “We have no plans right now to talk about entering into mainland China and trying to be aggressive in that.”
Is that true? I doubt so. Like Zuckerberg previously said “how can you connect the world without connecting 1.3 billion people in China?” I’m sure Facebook has plans for China but it isn’t ready to release its strategy. Why should they?
Facebook is trying to understand China, that’s for sure. However, it isn’t looking to enter the market, yet. It doesn’t mean Facebook doesn’t care about the 456 million Chinese Internet users. But with the ban, there is little Facebook can do except learning its culture and building connections with local authorities and Internet businesses.
Instead, I believe Facebook is taking an indirect approach to “force” its way into the China market. Facebook continues to grow in emerging markets like Taiwan, Russia and Thailand. It will not be long before Facebook hits 1 billion users. That figure can be achieved even without entering China.
Today’s world is well connected and to keep in touch with friends across the globe, Facebook will be the default platform where different nationalities come together. The Chinese understand that too. The pressure to stay connected will force Chinese users to sign up for Facebook. The ban may not be lifted… but who cares, as long as people are signing up. Sure, there are cultural issues and stuff like that. But if we were to think long term, all these are just small issues. No country is greater than the world and one day we’ll all be connected on Facebook, I believe.
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